Institute makes play for serious games

Feb. 18, 2014

Updated 12:00 a.m.

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Magda El Zarki sits in her office at UCI beside a laptop featuring scenes from the virtual environment she has helped create depicting a rural community in Ghana during the slave trade's peak. El Zarki is the director of the Institute for Virtual Environments and Computer Games at UC Irvine. She also is a professor of computer science. JOSHUA SUDOCK, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Magda El Zarki reviews scenes from the virtual environment she has helped create depicting a rural community in Ghana during the slave trade's peak. El Zarki is the director of the Institute for Virtual Environments and Computer Games at UC Irvine. She also is a professor of computer science. JOSHUA SUDOCK, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Magda El Zarki is reflected in her laptop screen, which features a scene from the virtual environment she has helped create depicting a rural community in Ghana during the slave trade's peak. El Zarki is the director of the Institute for Virtual Environments and Computer Games at UC Irvine. She also is a professor of computer science. JOSHUA SUDOCK, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Magda El Zarki labors in her office at UCI. El Zarki is the director of the Institute for Virtual Environments and Computer Games at UC Irvine. She also is a professor of computer science. JOSHUA SUDOCK, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Magda El Zarki sits in her office at UCI beside a laptop featuring scenes from the virtual environment she has helped create depicting a rural community in Ghana during the slave trade's peak. El Zarki is the director of the Institute for Virtual Environments and Computer Games at UC Irvine. She also is a professor of computer science. JOSHUA SUDOCK, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

For years, she had reservations about the immersive fantasy computer games her sons would play for fun after school. Like most parents, El Zarki would monitor her children’s time online and make sure they weren’t glued to their computer screens.

“It was driving me nuts. I thought it was an absolute waste of time,” she said.

But something changed on a family vacation to Greece.

“I told each one of my kids that they had to play guide when we went to various monuments,” she said. “Greece was a good place to go because my two sons play a game called ‘Age of Mythology.’ They knew more about the history and mythology than I ever realized. Well, that set me straight.”

Since then, El Zarki has seen the light when it comes to the potential for computer games as educational tools, as entertainment and as social communities.

She is now the director of the Institute for Virtual Environments and Computer Games at UC Irvine and even teaches classes on the community aspects of multiplayer computer games.

Launched in 2013, the Institute’s goal is to bring academic researchers and students together from various disciplines to work on projects pertaining to technology and design, society and culture and applications and education.

“The Institute is really about getting people together to talk about research and see if they can form new relationships and discuss new work,” El Zarki said.

When the Institute first opened, it was granted $500,000 over five years to start interdisciplinary projects ranging from examining the psychological impact of disabled persons using able-bodied avatars in game-play to understanding how galaxies are formed.

El Zarki said there are roughly 60 faculty members involved in research projects through the Institute.

“They’re from all over campus,” she said. “And it’s not necessarily because they are gamers or into gaming itself. They realize that ‘gamification’ is becoming a big thing. If you add a game to anything, most people are more willing to learn.”

The Institute’s Research Director Walt Scacchi said he has seen games used as a form of therapy to help people, including his father, recover mobility after suffering from a stroke.

“If you’re told to do something like pick up a pencil and move it around another object, there’s no motivation,” Scacchi said. Turning a task into a computer game where the same physical movement is required provided patients with an incentive to complete the activity, Scacchi said.

El Zarki sees the potential for games and virtual environments to be used as educational tools. Her current project is a virtual tour of Elmina, a community on the southern coast of Ghana that was once an epicenter for slave trade operated by the Portuguese and Dutch. Elmina is also home to impressive buildings such as Fort Sao Jago da Mina and Elmina Castle, commonly known as “slave castles.”

While many teachings of slave trade history focus on the journey across the Atlantic and life in the Americas, El Zarki said her project seeks to provide information and a visualization of life on West African coasts.

Her project is just one way to turn games or virtual environments into learning tools.

“You can play around with ‘what-if’ scenarios,” she said. “You can bring history and geography to life. Games are not just part of the entertainment world, which a lot of people see it as. We can bring that world into other fields. If you really want to make something into a game, you have to be able to see the fun part. Many games developed in the science would not be deemed as fun by any kid. You need to bring hand-core gamers into the picture.”

And that is where many students come into the picture.

The Institute compliments UC Irvine’s computer science graduate degree program, which was ranked 28th in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, and the undergraduate degree in computer game science, which prepares students for careers in software development for gaming companies.

Hal Stern, professor of statistics and dean of the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, said the Institute enhances UC Irvine’s reputation as a leader in computer game research.

Computer games offer more than entertainment value; they play a significant role in training, education, marketing and health, Stern said in UCI’s written announcement of the institute.

El Zarki said it is not uncommon for students in the computer game science program to obtain internships at local gaming companies.

Many students also participate in the Video Game Development Club at UC Irvine, where it’s not uncommon for weekly meetings to fill large lecture halls to capacity.

The group provides students with hands-on experience designing and building their own computer games outside of class and connects members with industry professionals, club production officer Justin Laforge said.

Each academic quarter, the Video Game Development Club hosts a Game Jam, a competition where teams of students have one week to develop a computer game before presenting it to the club. Teams are assigned a topic or theme and then scramble to produce the best product possible, Laforge said.

While it’s important for students to develop computer games on their own, they must also learn how to make money doing it. One of the biggest challenges for those interested in computer game development is selecting the right revenue model, El Zarki said.

“By the time you have the game out, the model you selected may not be valid anymore,” El Zarki said. “The problem is that when you design a game the revenue is tightly coupled to how the game works.”

If you select the wrong one, you could be doomed, she said.

For example, a company may develop a game that makes money solely based on disk sales. This means the game is loaded onto a CD and customers pay the full price up front. Game developers can work on a product for years, only to find that the original model is no longer the best way to make money.

El Zarki said that while there is typically more money to be made in games as entertainment, the goal of the Institute and the degree program is to get others thinking about the unlimited potential of games and virtual environments.

“We train (students) so that they can think a little bit out of the box and try to reach out to other disciplines to show them the potential for using games,” El Zarki said.

UC Irvine’s School of Information and Computer Science will graduate its first class of computer game science majors this June.

The program, launched in 2010, provides students with a foundation in computer science while focusing on designing, building and understanding computer games and interactive media.

As of fall 2013, there are 240 students on campus, including 50 seniors, with a declared major in computer game science. Students who obtain a degree in computer game science can go into careers in industries such as mobile software development, interactive entertainment, training and education software development, computer programming and computer game design and development. Software developers make an average salary of about $93,000 a year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In addition to basic classes on computer science, programming, software engineering and mathematics, students can take several courses that allow them to create and design games they’ve previously only dreamed about. Here are some courses that put the fun in computer game science:

Game Engine Lab: This course explores the use of an open source game or graphics engine in designing and implementing computer games. Students work together on teams to design, implement and evaluate new computer games.

Multiplayer Game Systems: This course allows students to design and implement a multiuser, networked and persistent virtual environment or game. Students learn cultural aspects of multiplayer games, community building, user interface issues, design, security, privacy and economics.

Modeling and World Building: Students use 3D modeling software and related tools to design and create animated, textured models and virtual worlds that incorporate objects, scenes and activity venues within game worlds and online environments.

Game Design: Students enrolled in the game design course examine psychology, game narratives, platform features and limitations, marketing, industry trends and aesthetic judgment. Students learn through lectures, reading assignments, presentations and play testing.

Computer Games and Society: In this course, students study and analyze computer games as art, cultural artifacts, gateways into virtual worlds and tools used for persuasion and social change.

UC Irvine’s Institute for Virtual Environments and Computer Games is home to dozens of research and game development projects from faculty members. Here is a short list of some current projects underway:

What: Researchers are studying games that are for use in complex, enterprise settings and not for pure entertainment. The team is interested in games that advance scientific knowledge and use informal science education.

Ergonomics and motion study

Who: Peter Krapp and Garnet Hertz

What: This duo is studying the media archeology of video games in terms of ergonomics and usability design with time-lapse photography and motion study. Researchers are examining game controls, game narratives, aesthetics and design while giving attention to hand-eye coordination, audiovisual perception and error detection.

Disabilities and avatars

Who: Tom Boellstorff and Bonnie Nardi

What: Researchers are studying how people with disabilities understand and use avatars in virtual environments. In their research project, Boellstorf and Nardi are working to understand experiences of movement, self-presentation and self-efficacy and how these elements shape the way disabled people see themselves while using an able-bodied avatar.

Understanding galaxy formation

Who: James Bullock and Crista Lopes

What: Bullock and Lopes are working together to create visual simulations to understand galaxy formation. The two are examining galaxy types, where galaxies acquire fuel to create stars and what allows galaxies to continue to form stars without exhausting their fuel.

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